This is how the photo agency delosfoto works for photographers:

 

First step: Make an application

 We are constantly searching for technically unobjectionable and appealing photos of ambitious photographers. It does not make any difference whether you are a full-time or a part-time photographer respectively whether you are a professional or not. Before you transmit your images, we kindly ask you to send us your application. Therefore, please create a sample of 60 to 100 images which you consider to be sold well. We accept images with the following shapes:

• slides 6x6cm. Due to the big effort we have decided to participate photographersto the costs.

• slides in larger format within a portfolio,

• scans as .tif format, min. 4000dpi, colour depth 16 bit

• photos of digital cameras with maximum possible sensor, tif. format, min. 10 megapixel

Digital images can as well be unedited as strongly edited (tone mapping, HDR).

Analogue images have to be numbered. For your sample, choose slide frames with ideal flatness. Protect the slides by customary transparent cases of the adequate format.

Also, we kindly ask you to send us a brief summary of your previous photographic career. Please send us your images or media only via certified mail and do not forget to attach a prepaid envelope for the return.

We will definitely contact you after the review of your images. Please understand that we are not able to react immediately. We will be glad to provide further information about the tagging of your photos. 

 

2. We offer you a contract

If we may welcome you as photo contractor because of the quality of your photos, we would like to know about the photo motifs at your disposal. At the same time you will receive a contract for the purveyance of photos. You do not have to close an exclusive contract with delosfoto. You obtain a user’s identification as well as a password for the access to our internet database. The access to our database enables you to:

• retrieve our download pages (model contract, proprietary contract, tables)

• retrieve important information (which photos are needed?)

• label  your photos with base data and tags

• retrieve business data (number and proceeds of disposed images) and

• other services (label printing for slides, archival storage print documents)

In accordance to our editors, you may provide your images after the execution of the necessary legal formalities.                      

 

3. Legalities / ownership structure

3.1 Please attach the following forms to any transmittals:

• 3.1.1 Copy Right Declaration

Thereby you affirm to enact the proprietary rights of the transmitted images.  

• 3.1.2 Model Contract Declaration

 

This declaration is necessary if photos with pictured persons should be used for commercial purposes.

• 3.1.3 Proprietary Contract Declaration

 

This declaration is necessary if you picture things which are protected by the rights of others (e.g. artwork in a museum) and if these photos should be used for commercial purposes.

• 3.1.4 Declaration of indemnity

 

A declaration which straightens out that all legal disputes concerning sections 3.1.1 to 3.1.3 have to be resolved with you as the photo’s owner and not with delsosfoto.

As a registered photographer, you can easily download all these forms on our website.

3.2 delosfoto procures the images

In any case, the author remains the photo’s owner. Yet, you are obliged not to offer the photos committed to delosfoto to other photo stock agencies. However, you may provide photos to other photo stock agencies if those photos display other motifs as the ones committed to delosfoto. Written covenants to this passage can be made only amicably and in written form between delosfoto and the author.

By the disposal of exclusive rights of use, we try to achieve an ideal price for the images and to limit the period of use. In such a case, the purchaser gets the exclusive rights of use for a limited period of time, but only for the purpose of use agreed upon. The photo remains in the database but is blocked to further disposals for the concerted period of time. You oblige yourself to accept the agreed rights of use by the transmission of photos.

An author’s right of objection against the conclusion of contracts does not exist. We will definitely strive to obtain market-driven prices for the usage of the photos. However, we refuse to determine the achievable price on a permanently changing market.

Please tell us about price elevating production aspects already at the transmission or labeling of the images. Because of the existing proprietary rights, the author is liable for all legal disputes which occur in relation with the images’ disposal (e.g. the invasion of personal privacy or the invasion of proprietary rights).  

4. Unacceptable contents

 

 We do not accept any photos with racist, discriminatory, violence-glorifying or sexist contents. For publications with above mentioned contents – if the publication’s objective is known or distinguishable – we do not provide any images. We support authors if taking legal proceedings is necessary against publications wich obviously add discriminating or negative statements to a photo via image manipulation or textual contexts.  

5. Fees and accounting

For authors, there are no charges in advance. The account is not balanced until the rights of use for a photo are actually sold.The author gets approximately half of the achieved price less the agreed upon charges. If we publish catalogues, CD-collections, email promotion or similar concerns with your photos, further charges of a separately agreed upon amount are subjected. These nonstandard publications are not provided without consultation of the involved authors. delosfoto is not obliged to produce catalogues, CD-samples or similar concerns. You may at any time request a tabulation of your sold images. Selling prices and charges of the particular photos are listed separately. Your dues to the KSV (“Künstlersozialversicherung”) are accounted separately and are subtracted of your revenues for the sold images. We forward your dues to the KSV. In case some of your material will be sold, you will receive a credit in regular intervals.

You should declare your occupation as well as your incomes at the local tax office and you should pay taxes on them. Tax inspectors as well as tax collectors also use the internet. The fiscal declaration might be advantageous also for you: Spending for your photographic work are tax-deductible as operating costs. Turn to a tax consultant for advice! We endeavor to get a voucher copy of every publication in order to provide you planning criteria for your further work.    

 

6. What happens to your photos?

Analogue images will definitely be returned after the scan. The imgages will be edited and imported into our database. The backup of the images will be realised redundantly via our internal server, removable discs and internet.

After minimal editing (sharpness and contrast), the photos will be loaded onto the web server. There, they will be available for further editing (tagging). The tagging options correspond to a large extend with the IPCT Foto Metadata 2008 format. As a photographer with a photo transmission contract at delosfoto, you are able to label your photos yourself . The software of delosfoto is developed and optimized exactly for this reason. If delosfoto takes care for the labeling, you will be subjected to mechanically fill a tabulation with mandatory fields which is provided by delosfoto. As the direct labeling in the database is faster, it is more effective to you. You release the images after the labeling is done – the further editing is provided by delosfoto.

7. Special Services

By request, we are willing to frame, label and archive your photos. This service is only provided after a previous acknowledgement and requires a written agreement concerning adequate consideration. After a previous acknowledgement, our scan-service produces DVDs of small picture slides or medium formats in a definition of 4000 dpi or lower. Also, we are willing to provide archiving services (printed sheets of the database’s contents) and the printing of labels for an adequate fee. We are looking forward to your request.

 

8. Your photo’s quality / chances of selling

Pay attention on the quality of your photos. They always have to be technically and mechanically unobjectionable. Of course there are consummate "super-images" which can be sold immediately, but those photos are rather rare, because a photo is only a snapshot of the reality and this reality is rarely considered to be ideal. Examine the competitors; observe the market and you will recognize: It is not the “super-images” which are dominating but the completely common, easily accessible motifs. So you have to shoot those motifs better than or differently to others. In exotic areas, you might shoot better – in the sense of more unknown – photos, which are however more difficult to market. The clientele for such images is very limited and if this clientele dislikes your photos, there is hardly another chance to market them successfully. Unfortunately, we live in a world which is much more interested in the battle-deaths of a few Western people during a senseless war than in 20.000 African people dying in a civil war. However, this neither means that it is useless to send us photos of those areas nor that we will not accept them. But you have to be aware of the probably low marketing prospects. For economic reasons, delosfoto will always have to consider whether it is worth to archive your photos or not.  

9. Marketing via other photo stock agencies

Of course, an eventually occurring marketing via other photo agencies is charged additionally.  

10. How are an author’s income prospects?

It is hard to examine why a photo is sold well. The prospects are advanced by good lightning and a compact image composition. But there are also many counterexamples, for example precipitous midday light. 10 years ago, it was inevitable to expose slides in a way which promised luscious colors and black depth. Nowadays, a trend towards the exact opposite can be observed: Overexposed photos with low contrast and shallow colors, preferably taken at dusk, are on the rise. Conclusion: It is possible to earn a lot of money with a single shoot as well as to earn nothing – down to the editor’s wing. delosfoto’s task is to confront as many people as possible with your photos. At established photo stock agencies, the medium income is 2 € per archived photo. Therefore, you have to rely on a significant amount of images in order to achieve an appreciable income. Beyond doubt, in long terms delosfoto will achieve higher sales volumes due to its better concept. As delosfoto is not yet established, you will have to anticipate lower sales results at the moment. However, our ambition is to outnumber the sales results of conventional agencies as our service is better and the image’s quality higher. Photo strips or series open up a good marketing prospect as the eventual purchaser’s responsible editor does no longer have to search for a fitting story.